PORT ANGELES — Organizers bent on buying and bringing to life the shuttered Lincoln Theater fell $42,000 short of reaching their Jan. 31 fundraising goal of $112,000.
The $70,000 in pledges that were fulfilled as of Friday came from more than 100 donors, fundraiser and event producer Scott Nagel said last week.
Nagel said organizers have reset their sights lower as they shoot for $100,000 by Feb. 29.
He and his wife and business partner, Karen Powell, had hoped to reach $185,000 toward purchasing the theater at the corner of Lincoln and First streets by Jan. 31, after which they would transfer it to the nonprofit Port Angeles Theater Project.
That proved too ambitious.
Serious blow
Their efforts suffered a serious blow when a donor who had pledged $75,000 decided against it.
“The donations obviously have not come in at the pace we had hoped,” Nagel said.
He and Powell produce the Dungeness Crab & Seafood Festival.
The Theater Project is governed by a board of directors, which would run the Lincoln as a 480-seat theater for concerts, plays, film festivals and other community productions.
“This is a new endeavor,” Nagel said.
“If there was no money coming in, we’d be concerned, but it’s coming in every day.”
Nagel said theater-purchase organizers will not revive an expired $235,000 purchase offer with the building owner, Sun Basin Theatres.
They will delay considering another purchase proposal until they reach the $100,000 mark.
“We feel the building is no longer worth the original $235,000,” Nagel said.
“There are concerns about mold and other issues.
“Our first goal is to have $100,000 in the bank.
“Then, we expect to renegotiate with the property owner and make a deal and raise the rest of the money.”
Theater Project organizers will talk to Sun Basin “in the next couple of weeks,” Nagel added.
Assessed value
Clallam County has assessed the 132 E. First St. building at $159,221 and land at $71,680 for a combined $230,901 valuation for 2015.
Bud Lund, the commercial-industrial appraiser for the county assessor’s office, inspected the building, appraising it based on 72 percent depreciation, he said Monday.
“We take what it would cost to rebuild that structure today using current construction costs and things like that,” Lund said.
“Then we say what this would cost today, but not brand-new.”
Lund said he inspected only the outside of the building, not the inside.
According to county records, it was remodeled in 1980.
Sun Basin General Manager Bryan Cook said last week he would be disappointed if Lincoln Theater organizers approached him anew with an offer less than the $235,000 of the dead agreement.
The property was listed for $259,000 before it was under contract to Nagel and Powell for $24,000 less than that.
Cook said Sun Basin installed a new $80,000 heating and ventilation system a few years ago but that a new owner probably would want to install restrooms that comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
‘Sound building’
“Overall, it’s a sound building,” he said.
Cook said if and when Sun Basin does sell it, it won’t be for the approximately $160,000 that the company spent when it purchased the Lincoln in 2001.
“I’m not motivated to sell it to anybody for $160,000, I can tell you that,” he said.
“We don’t need to sell it tomorrow.
“When it happens, it happens.”
The Lincoln is not listed with a real estate agent.
But Cook did show the building to a potential buyer two weeks ago.
“The goal is to put it to better use for the community as a whole and the downtown,” he said.
“We’ll see what happens.”
The Lincoln closed in March 2014.
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5060, or at pgottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
